The race that almost wasn't

Saturday I ran the Dirty Rocks 10k. In my last bloop I mentioned that I needed to look up the directions on how to get there, which I did. In fact I had gotten an e-mail with pre-race instructions that helped a little. I had a street, but no address for the actual start, so I got the instructions on how to get to the park, and just figured that I would find it. That park is huge, it took over 40 minutes to drive from one end to the other, which I did. In fact I had thoughts of just driving home when I couldn't find the starting area. Finally as I was driving back up through the park I saw some people warming up with race bibs on. I had made it. I had driven past the area because there were a bunch of Marines getting ready for a run in the parking area, and there wasn't a sign or anything to say that there was a race going on.

Any way I got there with about 15 minutes to spare, got my bib, and warmed up just a bit. The temp was nice, in the low 60's, very little wind, and very clear and sunny. In my e-mail they listed the course as flat and fast. I have never seen those words attached to a trail race before, so I thought it was probably just less hilly than most. At the starting line the RD again made the statement that the course was flat, and that today on this course was perfect PR conditions. Well that was a surprise.

The race started, and I took off. I guessed that there were probably 10 people or so ahead of me, and I was good with that. Normally if I can get into the top 10 it's a good day. About a mile in I was passed by three people, now thats not normal, but I just figured they got held up at the start. I slowly started to reel people in around mile two. I caught one fellow who was a few years older than me. As I got up beside him he asked if I though we were running sub 7, I checked my watch and told him we were doing 6:04. He said you are @%#*ing me, I said nope, and kept going. I caught and passed a couple of more people, and just felt great. I didn't look at my watch hardly at all, and just ran. The course was an out and back with a loop at the end to get the extra .2 in.

As I approached the turn around I watched for the leaders coming back. I counted 3 people, and then I was at the turn around. I wondered to myself what happened to the other people, but I guess I passed them all. Coming back was great, I smiled and said good job to everyone, but most of all I got a lot of "great job", and "keep it up"s out of the people going out. Once I got past all of the rest of the runners though I was on my own. I had no idea how far ahead the next runner was, nor could I hear anyone behind me, It's hard to pace like that. No target to catch, and nobody to keep from passing me.

I just tried to maintain through the end. I could feel that the trail was sucking the energy out of my legs, just because the pace was so fast on that soft surface. Otherwise I have no complaints with how I ran. If I had done more trail work before this race, and was more used to how it feels to run on the trail, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

My A goal was 42 minutes, my PR was 40:18 for the 10k, but of course for once I was going to be conservative, and just know that the trails would slow me down. 41:15 was my finish time, and I am thrilled with that. No negative splits for this race, but the splits are really pretty any way. You can tell that the trails were getting to me, because the effort felt consistant. 6:33, 6:36, 6:40, 6:45, 6:46, 6:48, and 1:09 for the last .2. I was just over a minute out of the top 3, and had a 40 second lead on 5th.

After they posted the result, I went over to look, even though it was kind of silly. When you are that close to the front they can't just slip another spot or two in. Any way I had people recognize me from the course and ask about other races, and stuff about training. It was kind of fun being like a temporary celebrity.

They scored the race a little different. Top 3 over all, then top three open, then top three masters, lastly top three grand masters. No age groups, That put me in 1st place open.

I know that placing is all a matter of who shows up from day to day, but it feels good to know that on Saturday for that race, I showed up, and I ran one of the best races that I have ever run.

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